Friday, 31 July 2015

The International Transport Workers’ Federation has challenged Hutchinson Port Holdings(HPH) over Australian and Indonesian worker treatment, stating they are ready to ‘fight’ and are ‘here to stay’.

In Australia, Hutchison Ports Australia (HPA) stands accused by the ITF of using automation and forced redundancy to get rid of union members. In Indonesia HPH is aiming to take on a port concession, the award is said to be opaque, rushed and potentially contrary to the national and local interest, according to an ITF press release.

In 2013 HPA started operations in Brisbane and Sydney after a new competition policy introduced a third stevedoring operator in major Australian ports. Both ports were set up with automated stacking cranes (ASCs) and manned shuttles.

HPA has now announced it will be ‘withdrawing from current bids for work in Australia and reviewing the level of services that we will be offering effective immediately.’ Around a hundred workers out of a workforce of 224 face compulsory redundancy.

The Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) contends that the forced redundancy process has been set up to remove union activists and delegates.

ITF President and Dockers’ Section Chair Paddy Crumlin said: “My union, the MUA, has received leaked documentation outlining a plan called ‘Phoenix Rising’, which indicates that HPA is secretly planning to introduce automated straddles and automated remotequay cranes.

“This is union busting by automation. It’s totally contrary to the principle of ‘automation by negotiation’. It will be challenged, including legally. In the meantime the MUA has reiterated its offer to HPA to look for a negotiated solution.

“Meanwhile in Indonesia, parent company HPH is unashamedly benefiting from a non-transparent concession award process that is against the interests of existing workers – four of whom were sacked for protesting against it, and only reinstated after the union took strike action.

“Between these three ports a picture is emerging of a blatant disregard of workers and dialogue. This is not the behaviour we expect from HPH. We insist that HPH returns to negotiations and the search for fair and just settlements.”

MUA have devised an eight point set of demands to HPH, completing it with the statement: “We will fight Hutchison Ports Australia until they realise we are WORKERS, we are WHARFIES, we are MUA and we are HERE TO STAY.”

The ITF (International Transport Workers’ Federation) is challenging Hutchison Ports Holdings (HPH) over its behaviour at port facilities in Indonesia and Australia.

In Australia Hutchison Ports Australia (HPA) stands accused of using automation and forced redundancy to get rid of union members. In Indonesia HPH is aiming to take on a port concession whose award was opaque, rushed and potentially contrary to the national and local interest.

In 2013 HPA started operations in Brisbane and Sydney after a new competition policy introduced a third stevedoring operator in major Australian ports. Both ports were set up with automated stacking cranes (ASCs) and manned shuttles.

Credits: @ITFglobalunion/Twitter

Faced with an effective duopoly of port operators the enterprises failed to prosper. HPA has now announced it will be ‘withdrawing from current bids for work in Australia and reviewing the level of services that we will be offering effective immediately.’ Around a hundred workers out of a workforce of 224 face compulsory redundancy. The Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) suspects that the forced redundancy process has been set up to remove union activists and delegates.

ITF president and dockers’ section chair Paddy Crumlin takes up the story: “My union, the MUA, has received leaked documentation outlining a plan called ‘Phoenix Rising’, which indicates that HPA is secretly planning to introduce automated straddles and automated remote quay cranes. This is union busting by automation. It’s totally contrary to the principle of ‘automation by negotiation’. It will be challenged, including legally. In the meantime the MUA has reiterated its offer to HPA to look for a negotiated solution.”

He continued: “Meanwhile in Indonesia parent company HPH is unashamedly benefiting from a non-transparent concession award process that is against the interests of existing workers – four of whom were sacked for protesting against it, and only reinstated after the union took strike action.

“Between these three ports a picture is emerging of a blatant disregard of workers and dialogue. This is not the behaviour we expect from HPH. We insist that HPH returns to negotiations and the search for fair and just settlements.”

More information

Workers at Hutchison Ports Australia yesterday unanimously voted for the following resolution:

The workers at Hutchison Ports Australia after considering various reports condemn the Company for their anti‐union behaviour and for treating the workforce as mere numbers in the corporate manoeuvres of Hutchison Ports Australia.

We are shocked and outraged at the way management have not given the union real information, data or labour modelling with respect to the proposed changes and redundancies in the terminal.

It is of great concern to us that we are being ranked by management like animals and shown no dignity or respect.

We demand the company alter their proposed course and enter into immediate and genuine negotiations with our union representatives and delegates.

With that in mind we demand:

The company supply all data and labour modelling to assist gaining an understanding of the real situation in the terminal.

We demand a fair, negotiated and objective process if there is any genuine redundancies.

We want an absolute right to return to our same jobs if business increases and there is any recruitment into the terminal.

We demand that all avenues are explored in averting redundancies and this is done with the MUA and our delegates.

We will use all of our international connections to ensure justice for workers at HPA.

We will fight to the end if HPA introduces automation without negotiation.

We will not accept automation as union busting and Hutchison Ports Australia is on notice.

Hutchison Ports Australia must start treating us with dignity and respect.

We will fight Hutchison Ports Australia until they realise we are WORKERS we are WHARFIES, we are MUA and we are HERE TO STAY!

My dad was in this accident he has been driving for 23 years and has not had one accident, the reason this happened was he blacked out behind the wheel and is now in hospital investigating whats happened. The result of this will mean my dads license will get suspended and he is completely devoted to his job. This was a complete accident where luckily nobody got hurt.

Thursday, 30 July 2015

Hutchison Ports Australia (HPA) is about to lay off almost half of its waterfront workforce at Port Botany and Brisbane, Australia as it pushes forward with automation plans.

Namely, according to the Maritime Union Australia (MUA), HPA is said to be planning to cut 97 out of 224 jobs – more than 40% of its workforce – at the two ports.

Responding to the announcement, the MUA said it would unleash every tool available – legal, political and industrial – to stop this from happening.

“The MUA is greatly concerned that HPA management is walking around with a “hatchet list” – picking off delegates and activists in a bid to bust union influence,” the union said.

The strategy, dubbed “Phoenix Rising,” by the company, is a tool to bring in automation without negotiation, MUA Assistant National Secretary Warren Smith said, stressing that workers were being ranked like animals at a fair.

“It’s basically sneaking automated equipment in under the noses of the MUA, so there is no requirement to have negotiated manning levels or coverage,” he added.

“We will make sure this company adheres to its moral obligations and commitments given to the MUA when it started, to operate in a cooperative and collaborative manner.”

The union noted that it was prepared to accept job cuts if the company could justify them.

“If they’re genuine, we are prepared to come back with a range of creative solutions to get through whatever difficult times the company is confronting,” Smith said.

The MUA said that union members at Hutchison will stop work for four hours on Thursday and Monday, adding that their enterprise agreement does not expire until February.

HPA operates international container terminals in Port Botany and the Port of Brisbane, Brisbane Container Terminals and Sydney International Container Terminals.

A Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) delegation has visited Iran after it was announced that sanctions on the country would be gradually lifted.

Diego Aponte, the company’s President and CEO, visited Tehran on 15 July and met with Mohammed Hossein-Dajmar, the managing director of the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL).

Aponte praised IRISL’s performance under the sanctions, which banned it from operating in international waters. The names of 16 shipping companies, including IRISL, and their executives, have now been removed from a US list of sanctioned firms and individuals.

The sanctions also prevented non-Iranian shipping lines from calling at Iranian ports and Aponte said MSC wanted to start calling in Iran. Despite these sanctions, earlier this month, Iranian Transport Minister Abbas Akhoundi said that ships from eight major international transportation companies had started to dock at Iran’s southern ports.

MSC was the leading international shipping line operating in Iran until its services were reduced and then suspended in 2012 because of increasingly tough trade sanctions. The company was allowed to resume some operations in 2014 at the port of Bandar Abbas.

A transit expert at the Bandar Abbas Port Authority, Behzad Alsafi, told CM: “We hope the removal of sanctions will affect us positively. Some famous shipping lines have started negotiations in order to open a new window of cooperation. We are ready to enhance our port and container activities.”

The US, EU and UN will all lift their sanctions progressively, assuming that Iran continues allow inspections and those inspections show no evidence of them developing nuclear capabilities.

Many UN sanctions will be lifted immediately but US sanctions will remain in place for the time being, except for food, airline parts and carpets.

The US, which has been sanctioning Iran for a lot longer than the EU and Un, will lift all its sanctions after eight years or after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) decides that all nuclear material in Iran is for peaceful activities.

Although the deal may be controversial in the US Congress, President Obama has said he will “veto any legislation which prevents the full implementation of this deal”. In that case, Congress may not have the votes to override the veto.

Canada, on the other hand, which was not a party in the negotiations will keep its sanctions for now.

Global companies are expected to now target Iran as a market and to move production there in some cases. PSA Peugeot Citroen, for example, was forced to stop selling cars to Iran in 2012 because of sanctions.It is now targeting selling 400,00 car sales in Iran and also to produce cars there and export to the rest of the Middle East in the long-term.

CMA CGM to Start Calling at Iran

French shipping company CMA CGM is about to start calling at southern Iranian port of Shahid Rajaei as of next month.

The announcement was made by Ebrahim Idani, director general of Hormozgan Ports and Maritime Department, Iran’s Tasnim news agency reports. According to Idani, the first CMA CGM ship scheduled to berth at Shahid Rajaei port in early August is the Andromeda.

The ship boasts a length of 363m, a draft of 15.5m, and a capacity of 11 5000 TEU and is sailing on the company’s CIMEX service. The ship is said to be underway for the Persian Gulf and is scheduled to load new cargo at the port’s second terminal within its ten-destination journey, Idani said.

The move comes following the deal on lifting of nuclear sanctions agreed upon last week between Iran and the six world powers in Vienna.

The United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution on July 20th establishing a monitoring system for Iran’s nuclear program and considering the “eventual removal” of all nuclear-related sanctions against the country.

Iran has been busy preparing for the return of major container lines to its ports.

The Deputy Managing Director of the Ports and Maritime Organization (PMO) for Port Affairs and Special Zones declared that in order to attract international shipping lines to the Iranian waters and ports, special discounts were stipulated for foreign cargo owners and ships.

The above mentioned discounts would be calculated for active entities in the field of cargo transit and transshipment based on their performance volume and ship sizes.

He continued that the aforementioned tariffs and charges for cargo loading and discharge in Iranian ports would be enforced by late June 2015.

World Maritime News Staff

Container lines make quick return to Iran as sanctions lifted

While it may take some time for Iranian oil to start flowing back into the tanker market, container lines are already moving to take advantage of the lifting of sanctions.

According to analyst Alphaliner Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM) made its return to Iran ahead of the nuclear deal with its Korea – East Asia – Middle East service calling at Bandar Abbas since April. Compatriot Hanjin Shipping is set to join them this month, along with partner Yang Ming, adding Bandar Abbas calls to their Far East – Middle East Express and China Gulf Express services.

Meanwhile CMA CGM, United Arab Shipping Co, and China Shipping Container Line will start calling the Bandar Abbas on their Far East – Middle East service from 6 August.

The lifting of sanctions is also expected to benefit Iran’s HDS Lines. “HDS Lines is expected to re-develop its network, especially to Europe, after the sanctions against the country forced the com- pany to restrict its non-Middle East liner activities to the Far East, India and East Africa,” the report commented.

We spent many days ( in our own time ) protesting that London Gateway would not allow proper Union access to their Port. As time goes by they now have their customers / trade and a stand by when other ports are full to the brim. Do they have Union status in there now as it all seems to have gone quirt.............Will they win the " race to the bottom on container rates ". To quote Boris and Cameron, thousands of new jobs with new trade !!!!!!!!!!!! . Not true as only a few hundred jobs created with huge job losses in Thamesport and Tilbury. To the people that work at Gateway - this is not a personal attack but please remember if your share holders don't make money the first place they will go for cost savings is a non unionised work force.